Westmorland Dales Landscape Partnership The Westmorland Dales Landscape Partnership Scheme finished in early 2024 with projects successfully delivered by a wide range of project partners, community groups and individuals. Over the coming months, we’ll be updating this site to highlight what’s been achieved, so please keep checking back. Welcome … … to the Westmorland Dales website. The Westmorland Dales Landscape Partnership Scheme aimed to unlock and reveal the hidden heritage of the Westmorland Dales, enabling more people to connect with, enjoy and benefit from this inspirational landscape. Specifically, its objectives were to: Reveal the area’s hidden heritage. Conserve what makes the area special. Engage people in enjoying and benefitting from their heritage. Sustain the benefits of the scheme in the long-term. This was achieved through a programme of projects developed and delivered through the Westmorland Dales Landscape Partnership, led by Friends of the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, and mainly funded through the National Lottery Heritage Fund. It ran over a five-year period from March 2019 to February 2024. Here you can discover what makes the area so special, find out about the scheme’s projects, and view and download resources produced. The Westmorland Dales The Westmorland Dales is a beautiful area of Cumbria lying to the north of the Howgill Fells and located within the north-west corner of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. It stretches from Tebay in the south-west to Kirkby Stephen in the east and to Maulds Meaburn in the north-west. At its heart are the limestone fells above Orton and Asby, rich in natural and cultural heritage, and with magnificent views to the Pennines, the Howgills and the Lakeland fells. It drains into the Lune river catchment to the south and the Eden river catchment to the north. Relatively overlooked compared with its better-known neighbours, our projects have aimed to reveal its heritage for more to enjoy without detracting from its unique qualities. (Click on map for larger image) Contact information Friends of the Lake District Murley Moss, Oxenholme Road, Kendal, Cumbria LA9 7SS Main Telephone: 01539 720788 Email: [email protected] Yorkshire Dales National Park AuthorityYoredale, Bainbridge, Leyburn, North Yorkshire DL8 3EL Main Telephone: 01969 652300 Email: [email protected] Home About the Scheme Partners Funders The WDLPS Team Projects Connecting Heritage Cultural Heritage Natural Heritage Resources News Archive Newsletter Archive Film and Sound Archive Westmorland Dales Map Geology and Fossil Educational Resources Heritage Talks Archive Geology Resources Poetry Archive Volunteering Opportunities EarthCaches in the Westmorland Dales Audrey Brown, August 2021 If you would like to find out more about the fascinating rocks that form the foundation of the Westmorland Dales, ten new EarthCaches have been developed, each covering a different aspect of the geology. EarthCaches are part of the activity called Geocaching, where small containers are hidden around town and country and geocachers use a GPS, either a specific GPS receiver or on a smartphone, to direct them to the location of the container. There are more than 50 of these traditional geocaches within the Westmorland Dales area. These have now been supplemented with the new EarthCaches. All the information you need to get started with geocaching is on the geocaching.com website. For an EarthCache, there is no box to be found, but there is information about the geology on the website, and on an app for those using a smartphone, about the geology and then some geological questions to be answered and sent electronically to the cache owner. The questions aren’t difficult and you can log the cache as ‘found’ as soon as you have sent your answers. Normally the cache owner will acknowledge your answers within a day or two. The new EarthCaches are entitled: Ancient ocean, Gaisgill Brachiopod graveyard, Sunbiggin Brockram, Stenkrith Park Limestone and brockram, Waitby Limestone Pavement, Little Asby Limestone Quarry, Knott Sandstone delta, Bents Stone Circle, Gamelands Thunderstone, Orton Treefold East, Little Asby If you’re out in any of these areas, you may spot geocachers looking earnestly at their phones and at the rocks and making notes. They’ll be very happy to talk to you about geocaching and to try to get you hooked on this pastime, which gives the perfect excuse to go for a walk and explore an area you might otherwise not have visited and learn some more about the rocks too. Manage Cookie Preferences